by B. V. Larson
“Searching for you, what does it look like?”
I had to admit he had me there. “Okay, how did you know I was out here, and how did you get past the soldiers at Gate 100?”
His teeth were clenched, and I could see he was looking for me out of the corner of his eye. I could tell he couldn’t see me, and that seemed to have him worried. I decided I liked him better when he was worried.
“Jacqueline came to tell me about your little adventure. She asked me to help get you out of here—and by the way, you should never have come up here.”
“It was your idea, man!”
“I know, but I didn’t think you’d walk right into the middle of it. I thought maybe you’d take a tour or something.”
“They don’t give tours anymore. In case you haven’t noticed, this place has been shut down to the public.”
“Yeah, okay, I get that. Hey, how come I can’t see you?”
“I’m asking the questions. Just keep looking at the town. Why did the guards let you in, and why did you come out here, anyway?”
“The answer to both questions is the Community. I used the right names, and I got past the guards. I came because the Community sent me.”
“Why?”
“Because things have gone bad back in town. Things have gotten…out of hand. Last night, a couple of buildings disappeared. Just housing projects, mind you, but they can’t keep a lid on it anymore. They want it stopped.”
I wasn’t sure what to think. I’d never trusted McKesson completely, but he wasn’t usually a liar. His method was to give you half the truth, then to let you figure out the rest on your own. My job, therefore, was to figure out what he was holding back.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll buy your story. The Beast has gone berserk and the Community wants all hands on deck to stop it. But why don’t they march out the army or something and deal with it directly?”
“Nobody wants that. This isn’t a Godzilla movie. The government has a deal with the powers that rule our hometown. Haven’t you figured it out by now? They get to play god in their little domains with their objects, and in return they maintain order. Mostly, that means they cover up any freakish events that happen in Vegas. I’m the guy who does the dirty work—or no, I’m lower than that. I’m the mop.”
I nodded. I was beginning to get the picture. The government was working behind the scenes, experimenting and the like. But they needed cover. In return for that cover, they allowed the Community to do as they liked. Las Vegas was a playground for the powerful. I suspected the city always had been, one way or another.
“That’s a nice setup,” I said. “But I’m not part of that deal anymore. I’m a rogue, and even for a rogue, I’m a troublemaker.”
I stepped back and let him turn and look around wildly for me.
“You’ll get no arguments from me about that,” he said loudly, as if I might have run off. “But I’m here to offer you a new deal. You can stay on this reservation, rattling around like old man Trujillo as long as you like. Or as long as you don’t like—it will be a life sentence, I suspect. Either that, or you come with me and help deal with the Beast.”
I put away the bottle and rubbed my face with my free hand. I kept the gun pointed at McKesson’s face while I considered the deal.
I let myself become visible without saying anything. He recoiled at my sudden appearance. He didn’t say anything, however.
“How do we get out past the pillboxes?” I asked him.
“We don’t. Like I said, it’s a one-way trip into this zone, and we’ve already taken it.”
“How then?”
He lifted a hand and wiggled his fingers over his coat pocket. “May I?”
“Do it.”
He reached into his pocket and took out a silver half-dollar, as I’d suspected he would. He placed it on the car’s hood and spun it. Soon a rip formed above the hood. I wondered if it would singe the shiny red paint. I decided it didn’t matter, as the car was going to stay right here.
“We’ve got to go before they figure out what I’m doing.”
I reached into the backseat and grabbed his gun. I figured we might just need an extra weapon. “Let’s do this,” I said, gesturing toward the rip. “After you.”
He climbed up onto the hood, the bumper creaking a little under his feet. Without hesitating he stepped into the rip, and I quickly followed him. My biggest worry was that the rip would vanish somehow, leaving me out here. I wasn’t sure where we were going, or how we would get back to Earth, but I was certain I didn’t want to spend any more time in Mercury, Nevada.
When I stepped out of our world into another, I wasn’t sure where I was going. I did know the coin could take me to only two places, both of which were hot and inhospitable. The rip itself was globe-like, but faded fast as I came through. I knew enough to stand clear, as being in the middle of a rip when it was closing could be fatal. I’d once lost a lot of skin that way, as a tiny hole between two worlds contracted to nothing. It had been like being caught between two passing trucks or in a tiny space between two grinding boulders.
When the rip was gone, I found myself standing on dark ash. The smell of the place, and the look of it, told me immediately where I was. There was no brilliant sky full of bright stars or a single glaring sun. Instead, the atmosphere was gray, smoky, and thick. Everywhere around us were pools of molten rock. They bubbled and released sulfurous vapor.
“Ezzie’s homeworld, I assume,” I said. “Why here?”
McKesson shrugged. He wasn’t looking at me, but was instead scanning all the nearest lava pools closely. I knew what he was looking for. The lava-slugs were swimming out there, and they might have sensed our arrival by now.
“We had only two choices. This one is less dangerous—especially since I think it’s daylight back on the beach world. I’ve already absorbed enough of that star’s radiation for a lifetime.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“It’s going to be a hike. I don’t know this region. But I do know that we should head south. If we do it right, and go about five miles before switching back to Earth, we should be in the foothills on the other side of Indian Springs.”
“What if we screw up?”
He smiled. “Then we come out on the highway, maybe. Or in front of a pillbox. It’s best to go a little too far and not miss.”
We started walking. I was glad I had my backpack with me. I offered McKesson a bottle of water. He sniffed at it suspiciously for a moment, then guzzled it down.
“Thanks. Thirsty work out here.”
“You’ve earned it, I guess. You didn’t have to come back for me. Or did you?”
He shrugged again, and we left it at that. We marched across loose shale and ash. Now and then, McKesson paused to kick at a promising nodule of solidified rock. Sometimes, gems were revealed when the nodule broke. He handed me two large, rough stones followed by what looked like a gold nugget the size of a hen’s egg. I took all these and pocketed them.
“What do you do with all the money you haul out of this place?” I asked. “You don’t seem rich.”
“I stash it,” he said. “In another country. Three other countries, actually. If I ever need to disappear, I plan to be very hard to find.”
I thought about McKesson as I followed him between the lava pools. He didn’t wear flashy clothes or drive flashy cars. I was certain that he wasn’t motivated by wealth. But I didn’t think he was a thrill-seeker like Jacqueline, either.
“Why do you do it, Jay?” I asked him. “Why do you put up with the smug Community and all their bullshit?”
He glanced back at me. “You know the answer to that one, don’t you? We all have our reasons. Why don’t you leave town? Why don’t you go to LA, sit on the beach, and stare at bikinis? Because you’d be bored, right?”
“Not just that. I want to know what’s going on.”
He laughed at me, shaking his head. “Did you find your folks out here?”
�
�I learned they died in the experiments.”
“Does that make you any happier?”
“The details didn’t bring me joy,” I admitted, “but I had to find the answers. I’m glad to know the truth, even if the answer was tragic. At least I know who I am. A brat from Mercury. A man with an erased past.”
“Well, I’m not in this to learn new secrets. I’m in this to stop the invaders, to keep them out of my town. This alien with the tentacles has gotten too greedy. We’re finally going to take him down.”
“But why did you send me out to Mercury?” I asked him.
He glanced back at me. “You wanted to know who you were, and what the Beast was. I just told you where to get the answers.”
“So you knew I came from the testing sites?”
“Not exactly, but you’ve always shown a powerful resistance to the objects. That happens sometimes with prolonged exposure. In your case, it’s been lifelong. I didn’t know your past, but I suspected it had to involve the test zones.”
Thinking over his answers, I trudged quietly behind him for another hundred yards. We passed a massive lava pool, giving it a wide berth due to the overwhelming heat that emanated from it. When a bubble a foot across popped in the middle of the pool, I ducked reflexively. Gloppy droplets of molten stone flew in every direction, but the disturbance was too far away to reach us.
“There’s a swimmer,” McKesson said. “It’s a big one.”
“What? The bubble?”
“That’s no bubble. Come on.”
He began to jog upslope. I followed, stumbling and glancing back over my shoulder. I saw a ripple out there, but thought it could be just the stirring of the surface. As it died down, I slowed. McKesson kept moving quickly. I fell behind.
“It’s just some kind of geothermal—never mind.”
Behind us, the edge of the pool splashed. Something was out there all right, something big enough to push a wave of lava and flotsam on the surface ahead of it. I began running again. The loose shale and stones shifted under my feet, clinking and clattering as they slid behind me into the crater.
McKesson didn’t even look back. He reached the rim of the crater and clambered over, disappearing. Cursing, I followed him as fast as I could. I was tired after two days of wandering in the desert, but I found renewed energy now in the form of adrenaline.
“Don’t you open a rip and leave me out here, Jay!” I shouted.
There was no answer. I reached the top of the crater, and there it was, a shimmering, spherical rip. I charged toward it, cursing McKesson. He was very fast on his feet when death was near.
Behind me, I heard a slapping, slurping sound. Back home on Earth, where the land was cold and wet, the lava-creatures moved like sloths. Out here in their native habitat, conditions were very different. A lava-creature that was no faster than a slug in a rainstorm became as fast as a charging bull gator.
I glanced back and yelped uncontrollably. The monster had topped the rim. It was a big one, all right. At least as big as my couch back home. It dribbled red, superheated silicon from its flanks like a swimmer shedding water. The head was slug-like, with pods on extended stalks. I almost tripped, but managed to keep to my feet. The rip was only ten yards away.
Then I heard something. It took half a second to register what it was. I’d heard a voice, which had said, “Where are you going, Quentin?”
My step faltered, and I stopped running. I turned around and put my hands on my knees, panting. “Ezzie? You scared the crap out of me.”
“Don’t go,” she said. “I’m lonely.”
I knew that McKesson’s rip wouldn’t last much longer, but I figured I had at least a few minutes to talk to Ezzie.
“Is this where you’ve been?” I asked her. “You’ve been hiding out here in lava pools all this time?”
“Of course. This is my home.”
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Everyone wants to go home.”
“That’s the problem.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I have two homes now. I want them both, but I can’t have both. Now I’m sad everywhere.”
“Oh,” I said thoughtfully. Ezzie was a strange creature. She seemed to have emotions, but they were simple and direct. There was very little guile in this creature. In some ways, I admired her.
“Rostok does miss you,” I told her. “I’m not sure if that makes you feel better or not. But he sent me to look for you and—”
“Rostok is the problem,” Ezzie said suddenly. “Yes, I see what I must do. Thank you, Quentin.”
“For what?”
“For solving my problem.”
“I don’t see how I—”
“I must have both. I must have my swimming pools, and I must have my Rostok. You’ve made it all clear to me.”
As I puzzled over Ezzie’s thread of logic, she slithered forward to a spot where a flat slab of obsidian rested. There, she stretched out her stalks and began to undulate her body. In this pose, she looked more weird and disturbing than usual. I thought perhaps she was going to vomit, or give birth.
She performed this ritual for a full minute, ignoring me when I called to her. Every few seconds, I glanced over at the rip McKesson had made. It led back to Earth, I was certain of that. I wasn’t sure what sort of greeting I’d get if I followed him, but at least I would be home.
At last, Ezzie’s actions culminated in a gush of otherworldly light. It looked as if the air itself had lit on fire. I was dumbfounded and wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself: she’d formed her own rip. This one wasn’t evenly shaped; it had ragged edges. It looked like a hole torn through a movie screen. Inside it, I could see the churning movement of the chaos that existed between the worlds.
“Ezzie, where are you going?”
“I must go to a cooler place,” she said, and slithered forward into her rip.
I stared after her for a moment, uncertain. I looked back at McKesson’s rip, which was already fading. I had to make a decision, and I had to do it fast.
In the end, I followed McKesson’s path. I felt I didn’t really have much choice. I couldn’t take the chance and follow Ezzie. I didn’t think she’d harm me intentionally, but I was very sure she could do it by accident. She might have led me into a land full of poisonous vapors—which smelled like sweet lilac to her.
I stepped into McKesson’s rip and stood there, trying to figure out where I was. I peered at the wavering shapes around me. It didn’t look like a highway. Something moved in front of me and came closer. I could feel the rip fading and knew I had to step through or be caught inside when it closed.
A hand clasped mine. I gripped it and stepped through. I found myself standing on a rocky hillside at night. McKesson had pulled me out of the dying rip.
“How long do you think I can keep a coin spinning?” he asked. “You know what happens when it closes on you? Same thing that happens to a man in a great white’s jaws.”
“Yeah,” I said, looking over my shoulder. The rip was a dying orange wisp. “I talked to Ezzie.”
“She was the big slug in the pond? I wasn’t sure.”
I looked downslope. The lights of a town glimmered below us. In the open desert, the air can be very clear at night. I could see TVs in windows, even though the houses had to be a mile distant.
“Is that Indian Springs?”
“Yeah, come on. We’ll get a ride back to Vegas.”
“You said you weren’t sure it was Ezzie. That means you suspected it might be. Therefore, you knew she was out in the lava world somewhere.”
McKesson shrugged. He put out his hand toward me, palm up. “I need my gun back, please.”
I hesitated. Right now, as far as I knew, I held all the weapons. “You’ll get it back when we make it to Vegas.”
He sighed. “You never make anything easy.”
“Neither do you.”
He chuckled.
“Are you going to answer me or
not?” I noticed McKesson had been pretty forthcoming with information back in Mercury, but now he was quiet again.
“Okay,” he said at last. “I knew Ezzie was there. I travel through that world a lot. I met up with her.”
“Why are you running around in the lava world?”
“Think about it. If you are good at estimating distances, all you have to do is spin the coin, step out, run a few hundred yards, then come back. I can get into the movies for free, anytime I want to.”
“Or into a bank vault.”
“Tricky. The space is too small to gauge it that closely.”
“How does Ezzie switch worlds then?” I asked. “I’ve seen her do it twice now. Who taught her the trick?”
“She must have an object. An artifact she stole from Rostok.”
I thought about that. It made sense. As far as I knew, no one could travel between worlds just using some kind of innate power. With the possible exception of the Beast, everyone needed a device or artifact to do it.
When we reached Indian Springs, McKesson had a cab waiting. He’d called for it on his cell at some point. I watched him hand over two hundred-dollar bills to the cabbie in advance.
“They’ll be a third if you get me to the Strip before three.”
“You guys have a dating girl, eh?” asked the cabby. He grinned, and his teeth were as broken up as his English.
“Yeah, that’s right,” McKesson said.
We rode back to town talking about our plans against the Beast.
“Is it going to be just the two of us doing this?” I asked.
“Just like old times. I asked Gilling, but his sense of adventure seems to have faded recently.”
I told McKesson about Gilling’s experience as a captive of the desert cats. He smiled and nodded. I wasn’t sure if he’d already heard the story or not.
When we reached the Strip and the cabbie dropped us off, McKesson led the way. He turned immediately toward the west.
“Heading for the Triangle?” I asked.
“Yeah, we don’t have much darkness left.”
“What did you do to cover up the building it attacked?”
“We burned it down. Wasn’t that hard, really, it was already on fire. The firemen showed up and squirted water—but they missed the flames.”